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Winners unveiled at Archant showpiece event

The winners of the Archant Awards 2003 have been announced at a ceremony held at the Alexandra Palace in London.

Some 1,200 staff from across the country saw publications, products and people from across the community media company scoop prizes in the annual competition.

The top journalism award, Journalist of the Year, was won by Mark Nicholls (below) of the Eastern Daily Press, who received his prize from Tony Blackburn.

Mark was a member of the media embedded with the military during the war against Iraq, covering the missions flown by Tornado crews from RAF Marham.

The submitted piece was filed in the early hours of the morning from Kuwait, after interviewing Norfolk-based pilots as soon as they returned from missions over Baghdad.

Sam Martin, of EDP Norfolk magazine, won Newcomer of the Year.

Archant Anglia had a good night – with the Hunts Post winning Free Archant Regional Publication of the Year for the second year running, and Julie Lloyd, from Gorleston Production, being named Print or Pre-Press person of the Year.

In the Archant Suffolk region, East Anglian Daily Times photographer Andy Abbott won Photo Portfolio of the Year.

Photography Monthly, from Archant Specialist, snapped up the title of Archant Lifestyle Publication of the Year, while the Editorial Campaign of the Year award went to Archant Devon and their Gift of Life campaign to sign up organ donors.

Pride of place went to the four Archant Values title winners which were presented by Archant chairman Richard Jewson and chief executive John Fry.

The Innovation Award went to Archant Anglia’s Gorleston production department, led by Sara Sharman. Archant Suffolk took the Openness Award while the Quality Award went to the production department at Archant Devon. The Commitment Award was won by the team from Archant Life, which also took the Promotion of the Year category with a Sainsbury’s promotion in Devon Life.

The 17 main category winners were all presented with their trophies by seventies icon and jungle celebrity Tony Blackburn along with Archant group finance director Adrian Jeakings, company secretary John Ellison and Archant Regional managing director Nigel Websper.

The full list of winners can be seen here.

The 70s-themed awards night also included a performance from number one Abba tribute band Bjorn Again and many staff dressed up in fashion from the decade to make it a real party atmosphere.

Earlier in the day the annual Archant five-a-side football tournament, held at the PowerLeague Centre at Barnet, was won by a team from the Ham & High, including goal-scoring contributions from editor Geoff Martin and sports editor Doug Gratton who notched a hat trick in the semi-final and a goal in the final against a team from Archant Hertfordshire.

  • Archant is the community media group which owns regional newspapers, contract and consumer magazines, contract print and internet businesses. All its titles serve clearly defined communities – be they based around locations or interest groups.

    Archant produces four daily regional newspapers and more than 50 weekly titles with a combined circulation of 2.6 million copies every week. It also publishes around 60 magazines and 40 websites. It is a private company with a turnover of some £146m. It employs more than 2500 people right across England and Scotland and its head office is in Norwich.

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